Short Story – Saving The Evergreens – Maretha Botha

I am excited to tell you that I completed the 90-Day Alpha/Omega (Beginning to End) Short Story Writing Contest/Challenge presented to members of the Rave Reviews Book Club. I pledged to do two short stories. One is mentioned here – Saving The Evergreens: Garden Secrets with a few illustrations and photographs for the younger and young-at-heart readers among us – categorised under Juvenile Fiction. If you ordered this short story before today, please contact me, because I’ve added a few illustrations.

Then, the second short story is a work-in-progress collection – Lost And Found: Family Ties – which I’m developing as I find inspiration for such types of stories, and as soon as Amazon has done their bit, I’ll tell you more about it on my other blog, https://marethmbotha.wordpress.com

Book description

Who knows what you may find in the undergrowth where all sorts of little creatures live? This short story fantasy will take you to a magical world which is hidden in the undergrowth. There, Tree Quarter – the home of all the evergreens – is attacked by a strange and fierce army of tree bugs. Are friendships and family ties strong enough to help the little creatures who live there to survive, and are there any humans who might unwittingly help them to overcome a terrible enemy? Young and old – especially those of us who love the environment and its many amazing creatures – will enjoy getting to know more about the fragile life in the undergrowth, and perhaps, be reminded of our responsibility to care for our immediate environment, which might be just beyond the garden bench.

Fiction > Short Stories

Juvenile Fiction > Nature & the Natural World > Environment

Thank you for visiting my blog today. I hope you enjoy this little story. I certainly loved writing it! Don’t forget to comment and/or follow this blog if you wish.

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Published by Fauna Park Tales

Maretha is a South African Italian, born in a small town called Montagu. She grew up in nearby Worcester in the Western Cape – a town reminiscent of living in Switzerland among the snow-capped mountains.
Worcester had a small library. Young Maretha’s visits were limited to three times a week, because the librarian told her, “You spend too much time with your nose in a book and neglect your school work.”
Nothing much has changed, because she's still a confirmed bookworm who constantly strives to raise more bookworms who enjoy reading, not just as a pleasant past-time, but as an excellent tool to be used when grown-up.
Before immigrating to the UK to settle in Lancashire, Maretha worked as a librarian in a private school in Botswana, where one of her tasks was to encourage children to enjoy reading. That was a labour of love for this bookworm, providing valuable help in carving her own career as a children's author/illustrator. It brought her face to face with the literary industry’s toughest critics – children and preteens.
She saw that many students also enjoyed reading about birds and animals, their care, habitats and general well-being, especially when a few added catchy rhymes here and there made reading sessions interesting and alive.
In 2012 her job was localised and as things often happen, this unforeseen occurrence led to a new chapter in her life. To remain motivated, she wrote down everything she could remember about her family's pets – their little habits and characteristics.
For example, the character of the working-dog hero in Fauna Park Tales is based on the different traits of every single dog her family ever owned. Researching habits, habitats and interesting titbits about martial eagles and eagle owls, as well as many smaller birds such as crimson-breasted shrikes and hoopoes,made it easier to illustrate them and tell a believable story. Her illustrations appear throughout Fauna Park Tales.
Maretha Botha admits to being a chocoholic and unreformed coffee addict, a keen gardener and bird watcher, who likes to walk on the moors where the stiff breeze coming in from the sea, quickly clears her head, making way for more inspiration.
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Yes, it’s the strangest things that get me thinking about what happens in the undergrowth and in this story, it really started when a neighbour summarily asked her gardener to chop out a young pine tree which started dying off on one side. I wonder if you would ever consider writing with me to put out a complete collection of GARDEN SECRETS”? 💐